China crisis

1. The Three Gorges dam project on the Yangtze river has led to a big reduction in the numbers of species such as the Yangtze alligator, Baiji dolphin and Chinese sturgeon. Numbers of Baiji dolphins, for example, which live only in the Yangtze river, dropped from 400 in the early 80s to six in 1999. In 2000, a two-month search, involving 70 researchers, failed to find any at all.

2. About 23.4bn tonnes of sewage and industrial waste were dumped into the Yangtze river in 2001, 11% more than the year before. Stretches of the river are now too filthy for human use. Critics say that the Three Gorges dam could end up being the world's largest cesspool.

3. China is set to overtake the US as the biggest producer of greenhouse gases by 2025. More than 70% of China's energy production is from burning coal, and acid rain is widespread.

4. China has a major problem with desertification. Farmers in the poverty-stricken Ningxia province devastate the grasslands of Inner Mongolia each summer to harvest a grass known as facai.

5. There are more than 385 threatened species in China. Giant pandas lost half their habitat between 1974 and 1989. There are under 30 South China tigers left in the wild. Endangered species in China include the giant panda, golden monkey, South China tiger, Siberian tiger, Asian elephant, black-necked crane, crested ibis and Saunders' gull.

6. Ten zoos around the country are home to 49 of the country's rare South China tigers. They are reportedly giving Viagra to the animals in an effort to help them breed.

7. Conservationists estimate there are around 75,000 Tibetan antelope left in the wild, but that as many as 20,000 are killed each year by gangs, who shoot them 500 at a time and smuggle their wool to India.

8. But it's not all bad news. Along with China's ministry of forestry, the WWF has created a management plan for giant pandas, adopted by China's state council in 1992. The plan calls for 14 new nature reserves and the construction of migratory corridors to let isolated populations meet.

9. Scientists at Zhejiang University have succeeded in cloning the giant panda's reproductive hormone gene to try to improve the animal's ability to breed in captivity. Most captive female pandas have dysfunctional reproductive organs and fail to produce eggs in the normal way. Only around 1,000 pandas remain in the wild.

10. Earlier this year, China announced a 2.52bn yuan (£194m) plan to set up a huge nature reserve to protect the sources of its three major rivers - the Yangtze, Yellow, and the Lancang. The 152,300 sq km region has deteriorated due to prolonged drought, excessive farming and overgrazing.